Took some of my friends on their first backcountry camping trip to Joffre Lakes last weekend (Oct 11-12) and we had an absolutely amazing time! We were originally planned to camp the night before but we changed our reservation due to some potentially nasty overnight conditions (forecasted -6°C without windchill) and we are glad we did. The park rangers told us when we arrived that it snowed a bit and many of the campers from the night before said it was a very windy and cold night. The trail was fairly busy, which was expected since it was the long weekend, but overall it wasn't too bad. The majority of the people were congregated at 2nd and 3rd lake, but the trail itself was quiet enough.
Eventhough our weather was forecasted to be better it was still quite chilly. The daytime temps only reached around 6-8°C and you didn't notice the warmth unless you were directly in the sun. We got to the campground at around 2pm and decided to enjoy the sunshine while we could before it dipped behind the mountains at around 4pm.
The campground itself had gotten some new upgrades since the last time I was there. Namely, the addition of ~10 wood platforms that you can now use for pitching your tent. The new platforms are located above the existing gravel pads on the small ridge that runs above the campground. Because of the previous night's forecast we chose to camp closer to the lake with the hope that the vegetation there could block any wind that may come through.
When we were settling in for lunch there was still a brisk wind blowing through that was quite cold. We had to put on some extra layers despite being in the sunshine and it being the mid afternoon. Thankfully though, as the sun got lower and lower in the sky the wind became less and less prevalent until there was practically nothing. As the last rays of sun hit the beach, we packed up our food and went to pitch our tents.
The ground near the beach where we set up camp was similar to the gravel pads and had extremely firm ground to try and drive our stakes into. Some of them made it into the cold and hard ground after a lot of convincing, and other ones bent while trying. Regardless, after a little longer than we would've liked we finished setting up and moved on to prepping dinner. We ended up picking a spot that gave us a view of Slalok, Cayoosh, and the foot of the Matier Glacier. At this point it was getting quite late, but that worked out in our favor as the alpenglow started to turn the mountains into a deep and firey orange.
The shadows slowly crept up the mountains and the alpenglow slowly faded, changing to a light pink before completely disappearing. This was our cue to start packing up our food and put it away in the bear cache. Throughout this entire day the weather had been perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and that trend was continuing into the night as the light continued to fade. We got our foam pads out and set up once again on the beach to watch the stars come out as the sky got dark.
By about 8pm it was completely dark and hundreds of tiny specs dotted the sky. The fuzzy haze of the milky way arched directly overhead, with its lighter and dark structures clearly visible. Rising over the NW ridge of Joffre was the Andromeda Galaxy, which could be seen both with the naked eye and in picture 13. Many satellites raced across the sky for the first hour of darkness but then slowly faded. We even got to see a very bright meteor in the western sky. Despite all the time I've spent in the backcountry, this was certainly the best conditions I've had in a remote and dark location. We stayed out until we got cold and then retired to out tents for the night. Overnight, the temps dropped to around -1°C and thankfully there was not wind. We were all a bit chilled as we settled in for the night but for the most part the temps weren't too bad.
We woke up around 7:30am and saw the alpenglow once again, this time illuminating Cayoosh Mountain. The morning was very chilly, but a couple cups of instant coffee quickly fixed that. We had some food and were all packed up by about 10:30am. While we were cleaning the sites, I noticed the metal cover of a butane stove in a nearby bush. When I went to take it out, I then saw the entire rest of the stove thrown deeper into the bush and behind a rock. We took it out and strapped the two pieces to our bags to pack out. It probably doesn't need to be said here, but this is absolutely shameful behavior. If you can't bring back what you brought in, just don't bother coming. It's our responsibility to keep these places as pristine as possible and the last thing we need is people treating the backcountry like its their personal garbage dump.
With that tangent out of the way, we were all packed up by 11am and started our trip back down. The path was slippery in the areas that the sun was hitting and melting the overnight freeze and there were a lot more people on the trail compared to the day before, to the point where there were lines forming and the stairs before 2nd lake. This isn't all that surprising though since it was now Thanksgiving day so people were taking advantage of the time off and good weather. After about an hour and 45 minutes we were back and the car and extremely excited to grab some hot food in Whistler on the way back to Vancouver.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the photos!
